Small Group Reflections

Reflection on Wounding

Small Group Work

Think of examples of wounding you have seen. 

How do wounding experiences affect people who have been devalued? 

How have you participated in wounding other people?

Reflection on Unconsciousness

Small Group Work

1. Personal Unconsciousness:

Think of examples where you have lost consciousness about important realities in regards to devalued people. What are you at risk of losing consciousness of?

2.Unconsciousness

at Work:

Think of examples of unconsciousness within the area of the organization you work within. What has the impact been? What is the risk of this unconsciousness if it continues?

3.Unconsciousness Regarding Concealed Societal Mandate to Oppress and Devalue:

Think of any societal practices that clearly end up oppressing and devaluing people. What are they? How do they oppress people?

4.Unconsciousness as it Relates to the Person you Wrote About:

Ask yourself, “If everyone in this person’s life was aware of the wounding process and really knew what the person’s life has been like and what the person faces on a daily basis, how would that awareness possibly change things for the person? How can your awareness change things for the person?

Conservatism Corollary

Small Group Work

What skills and interests are being developed through involvement in the Boy Scout troop?

Positive Compensation for Disadvantage: How might you use the conservatism corollary to address the development of similar skills and interests?

Person: Situation:

Reflection on Mindsets and Expectancies

Individual Work

Please read the following excerpts from “Take Risks, Ride the River” Then answer the questions on the following page.

Last June our family took a river trip to Utah for seven days. Since we live in the West, taking a river trip isn’t a very exceptional experience because a lot of families in the West take rafting trips. But there were a few exceptional parts of our trip.

On the last day of our trip, we had a particularly notable experience. As we began to unpack, several other rafts floated up to the take-out point as well. The kids called to me that amazingly there was another raft on the river with a person who used a wheelchair. We soon noticed that actually there were three rafters who had people with disabilities. This was a “special” raft trip. As we unpacked, a leader from the other group came over and said, “Oh, you guys do trips for people with disabilities too.” And I said, “No, this is a family trip.” We talked for a bit as I unpacked, and she asked me a number of questions. The first question was how long we had been on the river.

I said, “We have been on seven days.” And she said they had clients with very severe needs and their clients couldn’t tolerate such a long trip so they were only able to take a four hour trip.

She asked me how we fed our son on the river, because she said that eating and preparing food was very hard for their clients and she didn’t know how we would be able to accomplish this. I told her, “We used Wilson’s gastrostomy tube and washed his syringes with all the other dishes using boiled river water with a little Clorox.”

She asked how we arranged for sleeping. They didn’t spend the night on the river since some of their clients used wheelchairs and wouldn’t be able to get in and out of the tents easily. I told her, “Two of us, whoever was available, lifted Wilson in and out of the tent in whatever fashion people could get him in and out.”

She asked who was on this trip to support our son since their clients required at least one adult per client to meet their intensive needs. I said, “We all supported him. His dad and I did most of the feeding and gave him medicine, but the other kids did most of the other physical assistance supports during the day.”

Then came the topic of heat stroke and heat exhaustion. She asked how we kept Wilson from wilting. “Well, we all wilted a lot,” I said. “With squirt guns, swimming, water fights, and tossing Wilson in the river when he told us he was hot, heat stroke hadn’t proved to be a problem.”

What about physical therapy while we were on the river? Clients with physical disabilities need therapy to keep their bodies working. I replied, “Well, we had no physical therapy for a whole week, but we had swimming, floating with a life jacket, stretching out on a hot tube of the raft, bumping through rapids on a big cousin’s lap, and if you weren’t too sunburned, you might get a lotion massage in the evening.”

The woman ended the conversation saying that she admired us and was glad that our son had the ability to participate with us on this trip.

The TASH Newsletter, Volume 18: Issue 5 by Barbara Buswell

After reading the article, reflect on the following questions:

1. What were some of the mindsets held by the leader of the large group trip?

2. What were some of the mindsets held by the mother?

3. What are some mindsets held about the person you wrote about in your preparatory assignment for this workshop?

4.What are the impacts of these mindsets on the person?

5. How might you shift your own mindsets or impact the mindsets of others to bring about positive change?

Imagery Assignment and Exercise

Small Group Work

Find an example of imagery from everyday life or human services which is juxtaposed with devalued people. Good places to search are newspapers, the internet (google disability, schizophrenia, autism, etc), magazines, billboards, or human service settings. Please be sure to be able to provide some context for the image you find.

The image you choose could convey positive or negative images about devalued people. Please be prepared to present your answers to thefollowing questions:

1. Where is the image from? (Please provide some context for the image. I.e. Was it an article? From of particular service provider? Something you’ve seen in your community?)

2. What message is conveyed by the image about people who have been devalued?

Please have the image emailed to your group leader to be shared with your small group in the live session. Your group leader email can be found on google classroom.

INSTRUCIONS:

Model Coherency

Assumptions

Small Group Work: Randolph Township Transition Program Direction of Coherency

Please watch the video at the following link:  https://www.yout ube.com/watch?v =taguWtJUjoo

Who?

Then fill in the blanks:  Who are the people?  What is being provided?  How is the service delivering the content?  What are the underlying assumptions the service is making about Who, What, and How?

Then please fill out the reflection questions on the next page about Relevance and Potency.

How? What?

Relevance Potency

What do the recipients of the Randolph Township Transitional Program need?

Could more positive assumptions be made about the recipients of the Transitional Program?

What might be a more powerful way of delivering the content? (The content being: what the recipients need more than other things.)

What do the recipients need more than other things?

Are they getting it?

Implementation of Social Role Valorization at Different Levels of Social Organization Individual

Assignment

Social Role Valorization (SRV) holds many implications for action at various levels of social organization. Each of these levels of organization has its own particular disposition or “climate”. An analysis of this climate will greatly increase the likelihood that one will be effective in efforts to implement SRV action implications at a given level of social organization. The simple three part format below is designed to assist in making such an analysis.

I. In the first column of the attached chart, identify the major elements of what you think a receptive climate would look like in each of the seven identified levels of social organization. For example, an element of a receptive climate in a local church might be “history of solicitousness for vulnerable people.” Or, a receptive climate at the community level might be, “many accessible resources for people with physical impairments.”

II. In the second and third columns, identify the kinds of climates that actually exist in each of these three levels, noting characteristics that facilitate and act as barriers to SRV.

III. Based on the above analysis, identify in the fourth column the major specific actions you would like to pursue or support to help implement SRV at the level of social organization which you think is most appropriate for you personally.

Implementation of Social Role Valorization at Different Levels of Social Organization Cont…

Levels Elements of a Receptive Climate

Society

Community Neighborhood Family Faith Community Human Service Field

Specific Human Service Agency or Program

Facilitators of SRV Barriers to SRV Actions

Reflection on My Next Steps/Action Commitment

Small Group Work